The role of complementarity and the financial liberalization in the financial crisis.

This study provides evidence of the role played by the financial structure and the liberalization in the crisis for low, middle and high income countries classified by geographic region. The traditional view of the financial structure-bank vs market based economies is challenged by using the concept of complementarity. We find, as measured by the index proposed in Saillard and Url (2011) the complementary systems to be less vulnerable to financial crises and countries with a low level of liberalization in the financial markets and the banking sectors.